2015 Summer Institute: June 1 - 5, 2015

Digital Pedagogy - Projects in Progress

The second annual Teaching Innovations Summer Institute for SHU faculty was held June 1-5, 2015.The goal of this Summer Institute was to empower faculty to enhance their teaching practices through effective integration of the digital environment in on-ground, blended, and online courses.

The Office of Digital Learning hosted this faculty development initiative in partnership with IT (Robert Tullonge and team) and faculty advisors. Prof. Anita August, Prof. Wendy Bjerke, Prof. Jim Castonguay, and Prof. Amanda Moras served as the lead faculty facilitators. Twenty-one faculty members attended the institute, and all four colleges were represented. The participating faculty worked in seven college-based teams to meet common program objectives. Student Assistants with their technology expertise proved to be a valuable resource in supporting the faculty to develop their teaching materials.

At the start of the weeklong program, Provost Laura Niesen de Abruna presented the academic vision for a Summer Institute aimed at strengthening digital pedagogy practices.

Jaya Kannan, (Director, Digital Learning) shared the strategic framework for faculty development initiatives that are being built on the Community of Practice principles.Workshops throughout the week highlighted the nexus between digital pedagogy philosophy and praxis, and included hands-on activities. Faculty-led workshops covered a wide range of topics, including the importance of digital balance, how to build a personal learning environment, digital writing, and the use of assistive technology to meet accessibility standards. For a full schedule of the Summer Institute, click here

One common pedagogical objective shared by all the teams was the creation of video-based micro-lectures to promote self-regulated learning. Over the short span of four days, all seven teams built some type of video-based teaching materials to meet their specific course objectives.

Dean Jim Carl from the Farrington College of Education modeled the best practices for designing a blended learning course by sharing his work and teaching experience from the spring 2015 semester.

Faculty attending the Summer Institute developed concrete teaching objects at the end of the program. During the week, several exemplary teaching objects were developed. Sample projects included: integration of e-textbooks in a management course for student self-assessment and supplementary learning; use of video annotation to teach art and design; building micro-lectures to teach concepts of logic; and using Webex for synchronous learning. To check out the faculty projects in progress, click here

The Office of Digital Learning moved to the Martire building in May 2015. The newly-built Technology Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) classrooms within the Martire building have enhanced functionality for interactive/collaborative learning. These TEAL classrooms were utilized at the Summer Institute to model interactive learning during the hands-on workshop sessions.